Faust is a nuclear engineering student in his fourth year at Massachusetts Institution of Technology. He is from Columbia and graduated from Rock Bridge High School.

Suspects tied to the Boston Marathon explosions earlier in the week are reported to have shot a police officer on the MIT campus late Thursday evening.

MIT officials sent out an alert telling students to stay indoors. Faust said he does not currently receive text message alerts from the school, but he did receive an email Thursday evening about the shooting.

Faust said he normally takes the subway to Logan Airport in Boston, but the subway was shut down early in the morning. He said he was able to get a cab around 6 a.m., shortly before taxi service in the city shut down.